


the best thing of our lives

by thewalrus_said



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Asexual Character, Multi, Polyamory Negotiations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-02-20
Packaged: 2019-11-01 12:12:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17867033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewalrus_said/pseuds/thewalrus_said
Summary: Damien awoke wrapped in softness.Three blooms, coming together.





	the best thing of our lives

**Author's Note:**

> Have some self-indulgent How I Want It To Happen, because I couldn't resist the urge. The minorest of spoilers for the most recent episode. Betaed by BriWhoSaysNi on Tumblr!

Damien awoke wrapped in softness.

It took longer than usual for his eyes to open, but eventually he managed it. He was in a room he did not recognize, and the blanket laid over him seemed to be woven of several types of soft grasses. Reluctantly, he pushed it aside and made to stand.

A loud singing filled the air and he winced; instantly, the singing reduced itself to a more manageable volume, and took on a tone of apology. Before he could ascertain the music’s source, it was undercut by a rumbling, and a hole appeared in the wall of the chamber.

Damien blinked at the hole for a moment before casting about for his sword. It was nowhere to be found, but there were no other exits, and he was not the finest knight in the Citadel for nothing. The Citadel itself might be founded on lies and false legends, but somewhere deep in his core there was a store of bravery that yet lay untouched after his mental ravages. He stepped through the hole.

“Ah, Honeysuckle. You’re awake,” he heard, and turned to see Arum tucked away in a corner of the room in which he now found himself. He was holding a mug of something that smelled divine. “You’ve been asleep for quite awhile.”

“What - what happened?” Damien said, the words grating through his dry throat. Even before he lost consciousness, it had been some time since he’d had any water.

Arum unfurled himself and moved closer. “The evil was defeated,” he said, passing Damien and making for what looked like a small kitchen area on the other side of the room. “The monster was slain, and the day was saved. Or so I gather, I wasn’t there.”

“And this... This is your home?”

There was a note of pride in Arum’s voice as he replied, “This is my Keep, yes, and I am its guardian. Keep,” he barked, suddenly loud. “Wake Amaryllis.”

“Oh, no,” Damien said hastily. “Let her sleep, I wouldn’t want to -”  _ interrupt, _ something nasty said in the back of his mind. He shoved it aside.

Arum shook his head. “Her instructions were quite clear.”

Before Damien could ask for an elaboration, another hole opened in the wall Damien had come through and Rilla, Amaryllis, his one-time forever flower, stepped through. “Damien!” she said, a beautiful smile spreading across her face. “You’re awake!” She ran forward and threw her arms around him.

Unable to do anything else, he held her, burying his face into her hair as he had thought he would never do again. “I don’t understand,” he said finally, ashamed of the quiver in his voice. Had he not been weak enough, could he not be  _ strong _ again? “I’ve been so lost, Rilla, I don’t  _ understand.” _

Rilla squeezed him tightly, then let go to pull back and kiss him gently. “I know, Damien,” she said. “I know, but I’m going to explain, and we’re all going to talk about this like the rational people I know we are. Okay?”

She seemed to be awaiting his response, so he nodded, at a loss for anything else to do or say. “That means you too, Arum,” she said next, turning to the lizard, who was fussing with some dishware in the sink. “We’re going to need some more of that tea, I think.”

“As you command,” Arum said drily, and Damien saw another grin upon Rilla’s face. Whatever had passed between them, it clearly had not all been negative. Damien could feel himself begin to spiral, but with the weight of a good night’s (or more than a night’s, if Arum was to be believed) sleep behind it, he found he could tamp it down with more ease than he had felt in a long time. Rilla was still in his arms, and she had kissed him, and she was going to explain everything. He clung to that.

The tea was ready in what felt like only a moment, Arum pressing a warm mug into his hands. “Keep, open a portal to the garden,” he commanded, and another portal opened up. Rilla took Damien’s hand and led him through, Arum taking up the rear. They stepped out into the most beautiful garden Damien had ever had the pleasure of being in, plants of infinite variety spread out across every square inch. “It’s beautiful,” he breathed, unable to stop himself. “Simply exquisite.”

Arum coughed, and when Damien looked over at him he was rubbing a hand across the back of his neck. “Yes, well, I’ve spent a lot of time on it, it had better be,” he grumbled. Rilla laughed, and Arum scowled at her. “There are some chairs just over there,” he said, pointing.

There were indeed chairs, equipped to handle a being with a substantial tail but nonetheless comfortable. Rilla had not yet let go of Damien’s hand, so when she settled herself into one of the chairs, he took the one nearest her. Arum lowered himself into one across from them. “The floor is yours, Amaryllis,” he said, and  _ oh, _ now that Damien was paying attention, hearing her name in that voice was an experience that he had not expected to find so thrilling.

“Right.” Rilla took a fortifying sip of her tea. “Okay. I’m going to say a few things, and I need both of you to listen. But Damien, I need you in particular to really listen, okay?” Her eyes sought out his face. “I need you to really, really hear exactly what it is I’m saying.”

She had never looked at him like this before, eyes beseeching and voice plaintive. “I will do my best,” he said.

“Good.” Rilla seemed at a loss for a moment, now that his and Arum’s attentions were both fixed on her. “When I practiced this, I didn’t realize how scary it would be. Okay. Here’s the situation.” She took a deep breath. “I’m in love with both of you, and I want to be with both of you, and I think we can figure out a way to make that happen, if you’re both willing.”

Oh, saints above. It was true, all his worst fears were true. She loved Arum, she would choose Arum over him, of course she would, who wouldn’t, Arum was everything Damien was not -  _ no. _ She had told him to listen, and he would not fail her. She said she loved both of them; that meant she still loved  _ him. _ It had to; if she had meant something else, she would have  _ said _ something else. Her hand was still tight in his, after all.

Damien looked up at Arum. The lizard was staring back at him, violet eyes as intense as they had ever been. Damien shrank under their scrutiny and looked back at Rilla. “And this...” He took a break and plunged onward. “This will make you happy?”

“I think it will,” Rilla said. “I know it’s scary, and I know we’ve never heard of anything like this before, but I think it will make me happy.”

He had to ask. “Happier than you would be with just me?” His voice cracked.

Rilla sighed. “Not  _ happier, _ I don’t think it’s a matter of more. I think it’s a matter of...different. Complementary, like colors, or the way some foods taste different when paired with the right wine.”

“I take it I’m the wine in this scenario?” Arum asked.

“It’s a metaphor, Arum, I’m doing my best here,” she snapped, and then sighed. “Sorry. It’s just, this is stressful. I know I’m asking for a lot.”

The garden was silent for a few minutes. Damien couldn’t bear it. “If it will make you happy,” he said, slowly, “then - then I’m listening.”

He looked up at Rilla, who was still searching his face for any hint of an expression. “I hate to put you on the spot like this, Damien, but you don’t sound at all like you really believe that.”

It was true. All artifice had been slowly stripped away from Damien over the preceding weeks; he could no more lie to Rilla than he could take his own leg off and play far-hole stickball with it. “I fear...” He trailed off, and tried again. “I fear that...” Saints damn it all,  _ she  _ had been brave, to ask this of them. He could be brave enough to be honest. “I fear that however willing I might be, jealousy might be my undoing, in this.”

“Jealousy of me, you mean?” Arum asked, his voice knowing. “Or is it something else?”

_ He knew, _ of course he knew, how could he not? Those eyes, they had pierced right through Damien’s shell from the first, of course he would know how Damien felt about him. Damien looked up at Rilla, who was still,  _ still, _ holding his hand. He cleared his throat. “I, too, have...developed feelings, for Arum,” he managed, finally.

Blank shock passed across her face.  _ “What?” _ she asked, after a moment of silence. When he didn’t answer, she blinked and went on, “I have to admit, I didn’t see that one coming.”

“I’m so sorry, Rilla, my flower, my darling,” he burst out, unable to hold it in any longer. “I’ve betrayed you, I’ve fallen for another, please, can you forgive me?”

Finally, her hand slipped from his, and through his sudden rush of tears he heard her place her mug on the ground. A moment later her cool hands were on his face. “Damien, Damien, it’s okay,” she said, a slight laugh disrupting the final word like he had heard it do so many times. “I can hardly fault you for that, after all, when I’ve just said I’m in love with him too.”

Damien wept, his whole body shaking as she pulled his head to her shoulder. She shushed him gently, one hand running over and over again through his hair, until he was able, with shuddering gasps, to master himself. It happened quicker than he would have guessed. He pulled back and wiped his face with one hand, marvelling that he had not spilled his tea over both of them. Once he had the breath, he took another sip.

Rilla smoothed away the remains of his tears with one hand, and turned to Arum. “You’re being awfully quiet over there, while we declare ourselves,” she said. “What are you - what are you thinking?”

Arum shifted, gazing at the two of them. “You should know,” he said abruptly, “that I have no interest at all in sex. I don’t know if that changes the mathematics for either of you.”

“It doesn’t for me,” Rilla said, after a moment’s consideration. She looked at Damien; he shook his head.

“Very well,” Arum said. He folded two of his hands in his lap, his tea still held aloft in a third. “Amaryllis, I’m sure you’re aware that your feelings for me are entirely reciprocated.” He looked almost pained as he said it; Damien could sense in him the same desire to be brave for her that had driven his own declaration. “As for you, Honeysuckle... I know you less well than I do Amaryllis, and most of our acquaintance has been spent trying to kill each other.” The corner of his mouth quirked up in what was almost a smile. “But I can’t deny that I find you...compelling.”

“Does that mean you’re in?” Rilla asked.

Arum scoffed. “Well, if you must put it so  _ crudely. _ ” He sniffed, but then his gaze was back on Damien, heavy and piercing. “I suppose that is what it means, yes. I’m in.”

Rilla turned to Damien. “What about you? If you’re out, we won’t do it, I promise,” she said, reaching out to touch his face again.

“No,” he said, and then, “No, I’m not out. I think... I think this could be a good thing. A wonderful thing.” Happiness, unfamiliar after so long an absence, was beginning to bubble in his chest. He could feel a smile breaking out across his mouth. When he turned to look at Arum, the lizard’s almost-smile had bloomed into something small but definite, and quite captivating.

“The  _ best _ thing,” she said, beaming at them both. “This is going to be the best thing of our lives.”


End file.
